The Blessedness of Being Ready
By John Fast
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” – 2 Timothy 3:1
Many Christians are familiar with the name and ministry of George Müller. His work with orphans in 19th century England has been the inspiration for many others to live by faith alone. By the end of his life, Müller and his wife had provided through faith and prayer for more than 100,000 orphans (122,683 to be precise), distributed 250,000 Bibles and 1,500,000 New Testaments in many languages, and directed £250,000 to various foreign missionaries (a huge sum by 19th century standards), all without ever asking anyone but God for money. As well-known as Müller is, barely a handful have ever heard of, much less know anything about the person who inspired and influenced him to look to no one but God, and that was his brother-in-law Anthony Norris Groves. I certainly had not until recently, and I found his life to be a timely inspiration and illustration for the topic of this installment of our study into living in a dangerous season. It was a small booklet written by Groves entitled Christian Devotedness that made a profound impact on George Müller. He related to a friend how after reading it, “I gave myself fully to the Lord. Honor, pleasure, money, my physical powers, my mental powers, all was laid down at the feet of Jesus, and I became a great lover of the word of God.” But it was not simply Grove’s booklet that inspired George Müller, it was also the fact that Norris Groves actually lived and practiced the faith which he taught; the faith that denies self and the world, forsakes all earthly things, takes up its cross daily, and follows Jesus Christ wherever He leads.
While George Müller is without a doubt a great exemplar of faith in the promises and faithfulness of God, it must be remembered that he also lived and worked in a nation which at the time was heavily influenced and guided by Christian principles and with prominent, wealthy, and generous evangelical donors. Many visited the orphan homes and many heard Müller preach. His work of faith was very public and visible. The very nature of his work added a strong emotional and benevolent quality to his ministry that naturally touches the sympathy, philanthropy, humanitarianism, and social conscience of many people.
Such was not the case with the ministry of Norris and Mary Groves. When they launched their mission work to the Muslim world they meant to live by placing their absolute trust in the word and faithfulness of God. They went without any connection to any denomination or mission agency, and where there were no open-houses for interested visitors, no supporting churches, no reliable or guaranteed communications, no safe or easy means of travel, no friendly publications to make others aware of their ministry, no monthly reports back home of progress and success to keep people interested in their work or aware of their needs and hardships – where there was no safety net, no escape route, no exit strategy, no one at home to raise support, and no one to turn to except God alone if things went wrong, which they very often did.
The brave and sincere (and perhaps naïve) ideals of the inexperienced and untested visionary who desires and hopes to do much for the cause of Christ, are soon tempered by the hard and sordid realities of opposition, hostility, apathy, prejudices, fickleness, worldliness, and self-confident security of not only unbelievers, but of professing Christians. Years of self-sacrificial labor with little visible fruit to show for it will take the shine off any romantic notions of ministry. A more than common faith is required if one is to persevere under such disheartening and difficult circumstances. Prior to forsaking all their worldly interests for the mission field Norris was a highly successful and prosperous dentist, but afterwards every attempt he made at being self-supporting was, through no fault of his own, a total failure. Here was a faith which was forced by circumstances to deal directly with God, to depend solely on God, that took God at His word, and that proved and illustrated the love and faithfulness of God who answers prayer.
For any missionary to forego the security of a reliable income with an established denomination or mission agency, and entrust himself and his family to nothing but the promises and care of God, was just as revolutionary in Norris’ time as it is now. For a husband and wife to trust in God alone to provide and protect under such harsh and hostile conditions, especially when they willingly and intentionally chose them because they were the hardest, scarcely seems wise and prudent. But to also take with them two very young sons, the eldest being only ten years old, and subject them to all the hazards, horrors, and dangers of a six-month, 4,000 mile sea and land voyage from England to Baghdad, would by today’s standards be considered grossly irresponsible, negligent, if not downright abusive. Would this not rob them of their childhood? In his later years the eldest son Henry wistfully remarked how he could not remember ever having been a child after leaving England. Is it not presumptuous to trust God alone for food, protection, shelter, and safety in a land of famine, flood, plague, feuding warlords, insurrection, and murderous gangs of bandits? In fact, is this not tempting and testing God, in direct violation of His commandment, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test,” (Dt 6:16)? Norris Groves would beg to differ. In his words, “Many are affrighted and made sad in the ways of the Lord by the erroneous application of this Scripture… if he exposes himself to dangers he might avoid, troubles he might escape, for what he believes the Lord’s service, far from receiving any comfort or encouragement he is again accused of tempting God.”[1] But this accusation is a tragic misunderstanding of the Bible that has led to much carnal, worldly, man-centered, and faithless ministry, and false forms of Christianity.
Tempting and testing God is the horrible and provoking sin of an unregenerate heart and mind, and something which no true saint, either in the Old or New Testament, is ever indicted. When unfaithful Israel tempted God in the wilderness, it was not by trusting in His promises, His care, and His provision, but by doubting and distrusting them, even after they had repeatedly experienced His abundant and loving fatherly care, “When your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they had seen My work” (Ps 95:9; cf. Num 14:11). When the Jews tempted Jesus their demand for a sign came from unbelief, not faith, “And the Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Him asked Him to show them a sign from heaven” (Mt 16:1-4; cf. 12:39). We tempt God by distrust, disobedience, disputing, deceit, defiance, and ingratitude, but never by obeying His word and by simply trusting, depending, submitting, and humbly waiting on Him to do as He has promised.
When Norris and Mary Groves went to Baghdad in 1829 to establish the first Protestant mission to Arabic-speaking Muslims, unsupported by any denomination or mission agency, and with the commitment, based on 3 John 7, to accept no financial support from unbelievers, they went trusting God, not tempting God. As a consequence Norris was regarded as a threat by much of the established religion of his day and suffered from lies, rumors, false accusations, and misrepresentations from opponents, and abandonment by long-time friends, eventually dying of stomach cancer at the age of fifty-eight in the home of his brother-in-law George Müller with very little visible fruit to show for all his years of labor, sacrifice, and suffering. In fact, he viewed his own life and ministry as having been, in his own words, “less than useless”. Norris Groves was called, as have many other of Christ’s servants, to toil and labor with little support and encouragement. They were preparing the soil and sowing the seeds which, perhaps long after they were gone to their eternal reward, others would enter into their labor and reap a harvest. Unbeknownst to him, Norris left an example of simple and pure faith in the promises and principles of Scripture that would inspire a host of others in years to come. Like the Apostle Paul, Norris and his wife Mary had a faith that was able to say, “I am ready”; ready to demonstrate that the life of faith, as taught by Jesus and the apostles, is the most joyous, simplest, purest, practical, and safest way for any Christian to live and illustrate the faithfulness and love of Christ towards them.
It was an example that many more would later take to heart and follow, and as a result changed the thinking and priorities of many people. People such as Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, C.T. Studd, and Jim Elliot – not only their thinking about missions, but of the Christian life in general and the commands, priorities, and fundamental principles which are to govern it – commands and principles from which the mass of professing churches, their guides and leaders, and the people who belong to them have in our age sadly drifted, been led astray, and all but forgotten. In their fanatical pursuit of “success”, and in their determination to be “relevant”, they have substituted cheap, tawdry, superficial, worldly, faithless, elitist, specialized, commercial, and impotent forms of godliness. How very few there are today – especially among a people that have become habituated to traditional, comfortable, worldly, novel, and nominal forms of institutionalized Christianity – that have their hearts prepared to say, “I am ready”, for even the worst of sufferings.
The Excellency of a Prepared Heart
“I am ready”! What a blessed state of mind, yet a state that is not easily achieved. How hard and rare, but how blessed and happy it is to have and keep a heart so prepared and strengthened. I assume every Christian would like to be able to say, “I am ready”. I imagine all will say, “I hope I am ready”. I would like to think all would say, “The Lord make me ready for suffering”. But very few can say, “I am ready. My heart is prepared even for this.” Yet the example of the Apostle Paul, the early Christians, the martyrs of the Reformation, men and women such as Norris and Mary Groves, faithful saints and martyrs in persecuting countries today, and those who walk by faith and not by sight, all testify that such a heart is not only attainable, but absolutely necessary if we are to avoid shrinking back in a dangerous season and to persevere until the end.
When Christians live and labor in a pagan, apostate, and godless nation, and where the depth of its spiritual decay and darkness is to be clearly seen in the depth and evil of its moral depravity, and therefore stands guilty before God, they must expect to share in its national judgments. Their sufferings are not only those fiery ordeals that come directly from serving the Lord, uncompromisingly declaring His true gospel, seeking to recover and reclaim the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, and desiring to live godly in Christ Jesus, but also from those natural and national evils that God sends as His judgments to warn the rebellious, apostate, and ungodly. At the very minimum they will suffer and feel the same torment of soul as Lot, “for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds,” (2 Pt 2:8). In other words, Lot did not become desensitized to the evil, wickedness, and sinfulness which was all around him and accepted by the culture, and he certainly did not condone it or assimilate with it.
Being a child of God is no guarantee of protection or immunity from the effects of these national judgments. Jesus Christ never offered or promised an easier life in this age, but eternal life in the age to come. The gospel of Christ does not offer preservation from trials, evils, and sufferings in a fallen and cursed world, but preparation for a perfect world in which righteousness rules and reigns. We rarely appreciate and realize how much of our thinking has been shaped by and conformed to that of the world. Even if someone rejects the world’s theory of evolution in principle, in all likelihood their thinking has been shaped in one degree or another by its enculturated dogmas to where what they reject in principle often shows-up in their practice. Contrary to evolutionary dogma, the world is not getting better and better, but worse and worse, both temporally and spiritually. Evil men and impostors, especially in a dangerous season, proceed from bad to worse (2 Tm 3:13). This creation is still under God’s curse, is subject to futility, and enslaved to corruption (Rm 8:21). This includes the visible institutional church. Where are the seven churches of Asia? Where are the once great churches of Europe? How many mainline Protestant denominations have become totally apostate in our age? Perhaps an easier question is how many have not. How many “Christian” institutions have already caved, and continue to cave and waffle on fundamental doctrines such as creation, justification, sanctification, regeneration, and even the gospel? How much of what passes for Christianity today is nothing more than unabashed consumerism, personality cults, self-affirming psychobabble, carnal entertainment, or denominational loyalty? Churches in this nation, some over a hundred years old are now dissolving at an alarming rate. Our goal must be to call people not to the Church, or to a church, and certainly not to any denomination, but to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We want to base a ministry on biblical, not corporate, social, cultural, trendy, psychological, denominational, or any other principles and practices that have their source in the mind of man.
Worldly and human principles and practices will no doubt attract worldly people and build a successful “church” by human standards. This is what any understanding of human nature would lead us to expect. But such a ministry will serve no purpose for the kingdom of God and will only be blown away in a dangerous season like chaff in the wind and provide fuel for the fires of hell. As long as we live in an evil, sin cursed, and dying world destined for destruction, we are to declare the hard and narrow way that leads to eternal life, warn of the horrible consequences of rejecting God and corrupting His word (the evidences of which are all around us), and prepare our hearts and minds for the sufferings that come with living in a dangerous season. Numbing our hearts and consciences with a dose of superficial morality, spurts of humanitarianism, shallow spirituality, and worldly forms of Christianity does nothing to prepare the heart and mind for the sufferings of a dangerous season, but will only make them much worse. I pray that the following considerations will encourage and convince all who read this of what a blessed thing it is to attain such a prepared heart.
First Consideration
A readiness for suffering will bring a peace and tranquility beyond human comprehension in the hour of suffering. How many people, in an effort to bring some peace and security to their life have gone to great lengths to prepare for some anticipated and feared natural or national disaster? We call them “preppers”. They stockpile food and ammunition, build emergency shelters, and purchase all sorts of survival gear, all in an effort to prepare for some feared hypothetical future calamity. Yet how few put forth even a fraction of the effort to prepare their hearts and minds for the real sufferings that come with living in a dangerous season, even when the signs of such a season are as abundant and self-evident as they are today, and when those dangers are actual, and not merely potential and hypothetical.
Allow me to point out another glaring inconsistency. How many people pay large sums of money to hire a personal coach who will identify any defects in the way they live and work? The aspiring athlete will seek out and follow the advice of their coach so as to correct any mistakes, bad habits, and improve their performance. They will welcome his criticisms, rebukes, and corrections. The professional will seek out and follow the advice of a mentor, or enlist the services of a career coach, and take all their criticisms and corrections to heart. But when a faithful pastor or Christian friend warn and show them from Scripture that their favorite Bible teacher is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or that the denomination or church they belong to is apostate, or that some cherished and traditional belief and practice is unbiblical and erroneous, or that their lifestyle is inconsistent with a true faith in Christ and is essentially indistinguishable from the culture in which they live, or even offers a loving and gentle exhortation, then they become highly offended and unwilling to listen. Instead they will accumulate teachers and friends that are in accordance with their own desires. This is like an aspiring gymnast hiring a coach to tell them they are an Olympic athlete. Then they wonder why their life is such a mess. They are utterly unprepared spiritually for national judgments and the sufferings which inevitably result from them. A readiness for sufferings will bring the heart of a Christian to a holy and sanctified peace and rest in a suffering hour, and prevent that fretting, anxiety, fear, and distraction of mind which so often sinks the heart and shrinks back to destruction under afflictions.
When the prophet Ezekiel was told to prophecy of Jerusalem’s coming destruction he was also instructed to “groan with breaking heart and bitter grief, groan in their sight” (Ezk 21:6). And the reason given was so “when they say to you, ‘Why do you groan?’ that you will say, ‘Because of the news that is coming and every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes and it will happen,’ declares the Lord God” (Ezk 21:7). Had the people heeded the warnings which the prophets had been giving for the past 150 years then Jerusalem’s destruction would not have come as such a shock. But because they never took God’s message and messengers to heart, but scoffed at them and instead listened to their false prophets, “Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them; because I spoke to them but they did not listen, and I have called them but they did not answer’” (Jer 35:17). They were unprepared and therefore spiritually and mentally fragile, and unable to cope when reality began to sink in. Their fragility not only made God’s judgments much worse, but was itself a judgment of God, “I will also bring weakness into their hearts in the land of their enemies. …and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies” (Lev 26:36, 37).
It is an unusual mercy to find a person who enjoys inward peace and tranquility of mind when there is no rest without. Even the Apostle Paul confessed that his outward afflictions produced inward fears, “For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side; conflicts without, fears within” (2 Cor 7:5). But even in the midst of his fearful times Paul understood that it was God “who comforts the depressed” (2 Cor 7:6), so that he could testify, “I am filled with comfort, I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction” (2 Cor 7:4). The way to attain this peace is to expect, anticipate, and make due preparation for these evil and troublesome times beforehand, because when they catch us by surprise they are not only worrisome but often destructive and debilitating. The trial is aggravated by our experiencing it before we fear and prepare for it. Calamities, trials, and temptations that find people secure usually leave them desperate. In this way the enemy of our souls has always gained a great advantage over most people, and it is all too commonly found in the world, “like fish caught in a treacherous net, and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them” (Eccl 9:12). Paul reminded the Thessalonians of how “when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction;” so they would be prepared when it actually came, “and so it came to pass, as you know” (1 Thes 3:4). As a good shepherd Paul sent Timothy “to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor should be in vain” (1 Thes 3:5).
So it was in the days of Noah before the flood, “they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away;” (Mt 24:38, 39). No one but Noah, by faith, provided for the coming judgment by preparing an ark for him and his family, and only he and his family were preserved (Hb 11:7). People assume that because all is quiet and secure today, that nothing will happen to them tomorrow. They have a uniformitarian view of God’s judgment, all the while ignoring the obvious lesser judgments of God meant to awaken and warn them, “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation” (2 Pt 3:3, 4). People who are at rest in their sin, and have a pillow of ease and comfort under their heads are prone to falling into a secure sleep, and have pleasant dreams of continued peace and rest. They are resentful of being aroused and awakened from their false security, and having their carnal, sensual, and worldly pleasures interrupted by thoughts of sudden change and suffering. Reader, if you ever expect to have the peace that passes all understanding in your own soul when the earth is so full of violence, lawlessness, immoralities, godlessness, wickedness, apostasies, deceits, evils, uproars, turmoil, and disasters, then prepare for a storm and flee to Christ from the wrath to come, and cling by faith to the love, promises, and faithfulness of Christ.
Second Consideration
Our preparation for suffering is an excellent demonstration that we take the word of God seriously and truly believe its promises, warnings, threats, and its marks of a dangerous season. It is a visible expression of the sincerity of our hearts in the matter of spiritual truths and principles. Our preparation shows we understand the necessity of coming out from their midst and being separate (2 Cor 6:17; Rev 18:4). But above all, it is visible evidence that we love Jesus Christ and His word more than our own comfort, pleasures, and even our own life. Sadly, most people’s ideas of devotion to Christ are so superficial that they often think themselves His servants simply because they have made a decision, give assent to some facts about Jesus, have been baptized, attend and are active in a church, any church, contribute some portion of their surplus time and money, and are free from scandalous and obvious sins and vices. A devotion that is merely emotion, tradition, humanitarian, and syrupy sentimentality is a far cry from a simple and pure love for Christ. There can be no preparedness without a supreme love for Jesus Christ above all earthly things.
Our preparedness will make a noticeable and definable distinction between those who fear God and esteem His word and warnings and those who do not, “Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and esteem His name. “And they will be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him” (Mal 3:16-18). The person who takes God’s warning judgments to heart, and is daily dying to self and crucifying the flesh with its lusts and desires, weaning themselves from any love, affection, and friendship with this world and its toys, daily setting their minds on the things above and not on the things of this earth, girding their minds for action, and cultivating a heart ready to say, “I am ready”, resolved by faith and the grace and strength of God to stand firm with Christ in the evil day, no matter the cost, sacrifice, or suffering involved, this is the person who has truly come to Christ on His own terms, and is likely to be a victorious Christian who perseveres to the end.
As for Christ’s fair-weather friends, they have no shortage of justifications, excuses, and exceptions against His demands of discipleship. They will invent all kinds of easy, comfortable, and carnal forms of Christianity that make minimal or no demands on their life and that defer to the ever changing morals, whims, and fads of the culture. They will invent definitions of saving faith that consist of nothing more than mere assent and decision, negate the necessity of repentance, turn vices into virtues, and sinners into victims. They study to leave themselves an escape route and retreat from any hardship, danger, sacrifice, and suffering, or else they have rushed into their profession of faith without ever stopping to weigh the cost or consider the terms which Christ laid down for all who would follow Him (Mk 8:34-38). Trials, sufferings, loss, pain, and hardships are to faith what fire is to gold. Much that passes for faith in a fair season will not stand the fire of a dangerous season. Much that appears to be gold may go into the fire, but very little will come out of it, and what does will come out purified, precious, and more valuable than all the earthly gold in the world (1 Pt 1:7). How easy it is to appear an outstanding Christian when blessed with a loving family, a comfortable home, rewarding profession, ample income, and a circle of like-minded friends. But how hard it is to maintain any faith, hope, perseverance, and Christian spirit when following Christ and His word requires you to forsake all earthly comforts, necessitates your standing virtually alone, and when you are stripped bare of all earthly supports and made to feel utterly fruitless, helpless, and exposed to a thousand trials, temptations, and weaknesses.
Jesus certainly never accepted every positive response to Him and His message as a mark of true saving faith, but laid down self-denying and suffering terms, as is clear from His dealing with the rich young ruler (Lk 18:18-22), and in the parable of Luke 14:25-33. It is needless to cite more examples. When great multitudes were following and flocking around Him, and came from all over to see and hear Him, Jesus knew that if one sharp trial, or one serious threat to their own self-interests should come upon them for following Him, it would quickly thin the crowds to just a mere handful (Jn 6:66). This was proven time and time again. Even when some of the Jewish rulers secretly believed in Jesus, yet out of fear of the consequences to their self-interests, “they were not confessing Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God” (Jn 12:42, 43). So Jesus set down terms and conditions to which everyone who will follow Him must accept without question or debate, the essence of which is, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Lk 9:23).
This is the way laid down by Jesus. If we really intend to finish the building, if we really intend to engage and not just face the enemy (Lk 14: 27-31), and if we really intend to persevere to the end, then we must sit down and calculate the cost of true Christianity. We must consider the worst as well as the best. We must expect and prepare for the hatred of the world, opposition and alienation from friends and family, hostility from nominal, worldly, and carnal Christianity, reproaches, slanders, caricatures, apathy, deprivations, and persecutions, as well as all the more pleasant and easier parts of following Christ. We must consider the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, looking forward by faith to the reward. In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we are given a catalog of saints who by faith endured prolonged and severe trials and sufferings by drawing hope and strength from the thought of God’s promised future blessings, not from any temporal, temporary, and earthly advantages and accomplishments. It is the thoughts and intentions of the heart which God judges, not the success or failure of any undertaking. It is God who will “disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God” (1 Cor 4:5).
If people must have an answer for every convincing argument against the truth, and an explanation that reconciles every apparent contradiction and conflicting truth before they will believe any; if they must understand how God will fulfill His promises before they will trust them unconditionally and obey His commands; if their obedience and trust hangs on having some sort of safety net, some visible signs of success, and having their understanding and preconditions satisfied, instead of a humble submission of the mind and will – then the mass of professing Christians will find the narrow path of faith and the hard road of obedience blocked at the outset. They can never expect to know the peace and blessing of being prepared for sufferings.
The deepest and greatest work of God is rarely marked by what we would call success and popularity, “that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God” (Lk 16:15). The Bible never suggests that Christ’s purpose is a successful, comfortable, and popular church in a sinful world, but a holy, obedient, and purified people for His own possession (Tit 2:14; 1 Pt 2:8-10), and who appear as lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (Phil 2:15). If this purification comes primarily through trials, tribulations, pain, loss, and suffering, as the Bible clearly assures us it does (Ac 14:22; Rm 5:3-5; 2 Thes 1:5; Hb 12:1-11; Jm 1:2, 3; 1 Pt 4:12; 5:10), then we not only have every reason to count the cost and prepare for it, but we have sufficient reason given for every hardship and sorrow we face. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and most of the prophets appear to have had little impact on those to whom they preached. Their personal devotion resulted in nothing but continuous personal suffering, “Everyone mocks me… for me the word of the Lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long” (Jer 20:7, 8). Noah preached for 120 years without a single convert, yet he along with the prophets fulfilled God’s purpose in their preaching. If we have been faithful to faithfully proclaim, obey, and follow Christ, take Him at His word, and love Him sincerely, then we have been successful. If we have done the will of God, then we have succeeded. According to Jesus there will be many who had lives and ministries that outwardly had all the appearance of being very righteous and successful, yet in the end will hear those awful words, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Mt 7:21-23).
It is from a failure to count the cost that so many stony ground converts faint and fall away during times of affliction, tribulations, temptations, and oppositions (Mt 13:20, 21). It is the reason so many compromise the word of God and defer and pander to the whims of the culture rather than suffer loss for the truth. No doubt this is one reason why God makes us feel the horrible, hidden, and vile evil of our own hearts, inflicts such deep wounds of conviction, grieves and humbles us, and makes sin so bitter and burdensome. It is to prepare us for future trials and sufferings. These inward trials are necessary to keep us from shrinking back and returning to sin in a time of suffering and temptation, and to make us fear and hate sin more than suffering. The godly 18th century pastor and hymn writer John Newton understood this, as he expressed in a stanza of one of his hymns, “These inward trials I employ, from self, and pride, to set thee free, and break thy schemes of earthly joy, that thou may find thy all in Me.” This is part of His loving fatherly discipline of which all His true children are made partakers, “But if you are without discipline…then you are illegitimate children, and not sons” (Hb 12:8). Reader, if you have come to Christ in this way, counting the cost and submitting to His terms, ready and prepared to bear the cross and follow the example of suffering which Christ has set for us (1 Pt 2:21; Hb 12:1-4), then you have good evidence that you have a sincere faith that is the gift of the Holy Spirit which affords a sweeter comfort under even the harshest and most severe sufferings than anything that this world can offer. “If we endure, we shall reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us;” (2 Tm 2:12).
Third Consideration
Preparation for suffering will go a long way in preventing our succumbing to the scandal and offense of the cross, both with respect to ourselves and to others. The cross of Christ always has and always will be an offense to the natural, unbelieving heart and mind. To the Jews the cross is a stumbling block and to the gentiles it is foolishness, but to both alike it remains as much an offense now as it was in the first century (1 Cor 1:23). It is the reason why so many who profess to be Christians are openly ashamed of Christ and His words. They are constantly trying to explain both of them away, invent reasons why they are not to be taken literally, or turning them into something they were never intended to be, all because they feel the offense of the cross. They deny that anyone will endure the wrath of God in a literal hell for eternity, thereby necessitating the alteration of the doctrine of the atonement and robbing the cross of its sacrificial and substitutionary feature. They define the gospel and Christianity in such broad terms so as to include virtually everyone, exclude no one, and assure that everyone goes to heaven when they die. The cross and the gospel are reduced to nothing more than a vague message of forgiveness and evidence of God’s love for mankind in general, while the justice and holiness of God in the satisfaction of His wrath are forgotten or denied. All this is done under the specious cloaks of love, tolerance, and scholarship when in reality, just like those in the first century, it is “simply that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ” (Gal 6:12). However, as D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once observed,
“But perhaps the people who find the cross most offensive of all are those who on the surface seem to praise it most of all,…They preach a lot about the cross, yes, but they preach it as something that is beautiful – so touching, so affecting, so moving. And yet I would say that they, of all people, are the ones who feel the offence of the cross most of all. In fact, they feel it so much that they have got to turn it into something that it was never meant to be. They find it so offensive in its stark reality, that they philosophize it into the most beautiful thing, a kind of aesthetic enactment, and so they sentimentalize the cross and talk about it with great pathos. These, of all people, are the ones who feel the offence of the cross. ….It is always an offence to the natural man…So if you have never felt it, you have never seen it, because you were once a natural man. There is nobody born a Christian into this world. We have to be born again to become Christians, and while we are natural men and women, the cross is an offence.” [2]
First, preparing for sufferings prevents our own offense at sufferings for Christ. Jesus gave a beatitude for all who keep from stumbling over and being offended by Him, “And blessed is He who keeps from stumbling over Me” (Mt 11:6). Someone stumbles over and is offended by Jesus when they refuse to have their mistaken, preconceived, erroneous, and sentimental views of Jesus corrected and conformed to the Bible’s revelation of Jesus Christ. They are offended when Christ’s commands, conditions, descriptions, principles, doctrines, gospel, warnings, threats, and promises run contrary to their traditions, feelings, prejudices, lusts, reason, and own opinions, “they stumble because they are disobedient to the word” (1Pt 2:8). Among the multitude of professing Christians, very few are to be found who are not in any way offended at suffering for Christ and His words. How few there are who do not in some way seek to harmonize, integrate, and accommodate the ideas, theories, values, and morals of man rather than suffer as an intellectual and social outcast. They came to Christ expecting (because told to expect) much happiness, peace, fulfillment, and prosperity in being a Christian. Then when their worldly, temporal, self-centered, and carnal interests are threatened rather than secured by their profession of Christ, like the bulk of Jesus’ disciples in John 6:66, they withdraw and no longer walk with Him anymore, and instead substitute a counterfeit Jesus or a general belief in a general god who secures and poses no threat to their worldly self-interests.
Jesus very clearly tied together the beginning of sufferings with the offense that will cause many to fall away from following Him, “all these are merely the beginning of birth pangs….And at that time many will fall away…”(Mt 24:8, 10). Notice, Jesus said that these were merely the beginning of birth pangs, not the birth pangs themselves. Every woman who has experienced giving birth can testify to the fact that birth pangs do not begin without any prior warning. Just as a woman cannot know the precise time she will actually go into labor, she can know that the time is near based on the signs and symptoms she is experiencing, and to prepare herself for the pains which are sure to follow. There are always symptoms and signs that belong to, precede, and warn of the onset of actual birth pangs. Jesus said we will not know the day or the hour, but we are to know the season based on the signs and symptoms. As we have shown in our previous studies, based on all the evidences and signs given by God that mark out a season as dangerous, it should be obvious that we are in a dangerous season.
If many fall away, and cannot endure the mere beginning of sufferings, how many more will fall away in a dangerous season? If they fall down in a land of peace, how will they do in the thicket of the Jordan (Jer 12:5)? If we cannot trust God’s promises and be faithful when we face such mild opposition, do we really think we will trust and obey if doing so may cost us everything? If we cannot see the value of, and are unprepared for a little suffering now in a dangerous season, how will we be prepared for much more later? If we cannot endure and be loyal to the cause of Christ when times are comparatively easy, how will we when it may cost us dearly? For the answer we need look no further than the current state of professing Christendom. Sufferings and apostasies go together. It is the wicked, not the prepared that stumble in a time of calamity (Prov 24:16). Ease, accommodation, and prosperity will fill the church with false Christians, but sufferings on account of Christ will drive them, not out of the visible church, but into false ones that pander to their own desires and fleshly self-interests (2 Tm 4:3). In such a season the true disciple of Christ is exhorted, among other things, to “join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,” (2 Tm 1:8); and to, “suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tm 2:3); and to, “endure hardship” (2 Tm 4:5).
Reader, if you are one of the few who have made it their business to acquaint yourself with, recognize, and foresee the marks of a dangerous season, you will have as great a devotion, love, and trust for Christ, His word, and His ways under the lowest and most trying of sufferings as you had in the highest of your blessings and prosperity. Christ and His word will be more precious to you than all your worldly joys and comforts ever were. The psalmist tells us, “Those who love Your law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble” (Ps 119:165). What a blessed and happy condition when no trial, no suffering, or no hardship, however severe or prolonged, will offend and cause you to fall away. You may face reproaches, ridicule, rejection, deprivation, slander, fines, abuses, or even violence, but none of these will cause you to stumble or take offense. You pass through them in perfect peace because they are no more than what you have expected and prepared your heart and mind for, “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You” (Is 26:3).
Second, your not taking offense at the cross of Christ will prevent you from becoming a cause of stumbling and scandal to others. The world is full enough of stumbling blocks and offenses without anyone adding to them. Jesus pronounces a serious and sober warning against being a cause of stumbling to others, “Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes” (Mt 18:7). It is a serious and dangerous thing to be the occasion of someone’s stumbling, either to the weak or to the wicked. Jesus rebuked the church of Pergamum, “because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality” (Rv 2:14). They condoned what God condemned, and permitted what God has forbidden. They minimize the sinfulness of sin and deny God’s judgment against it. They corrupt both the life and worship which God has prescribed and demands. They assimilate the values, philosophies, and practices of the pagan culture around them and integrate them into their worship of God, thereby becoming a stumbling block both to the weak and to the wicked. They would rather sin and lead others into sin than suffer in a dangerous season. They choose the wide road, and strive to make themselves and others think it is the right road because traveled by a multitude of others. Like the apostate priests of Israel they, “have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” (Mal 2:8), and in so doing they prejudice many against the gospel of Jesus Christ. All this waywardness could be prevented by a serious expectation and preparation for a dangerous season, especially when its indications are so plentiful and obvious.
Fourth Consideration
A fourth gracious benefit of a heart and mind prepared for suffering is that it tends to be an instrument in the hands of God to convict, convince, and awaken a secure and drowsy world. If God’s people only took seriously the marks of a dangerous season that God has graciously given in His word, and seriously prepare their hearts and minds to live as people preparing for a storm, and resolve themselves, by faith in the promised strength of Christ, to face and patiently bear any hardships, trials, and sufferings for His sake, it would do more to convict and awaken the worldling than all the sermons they ever heard. Here is what nullifies so much of professing Christianity in the eyes of the world. Here is what prejudices the world against Christianity, and the reason they do not take its doctrines and message seriously.
They hear us preach and talk-up self-denial, separation from the world, holiness, and freedom from the power of sin in Christ. They hear us profess to believe many things in principle, but when they look at the lives of the bulk of churches and the people who belong to them, they see little real difference between their lives and the lives of these professors, and virtually no correspondence between what they profess and how they live. They see these professors indulging all their worldly desires, clinging to and setting their minds on the things of this earth, and as reluctant to give them up as anyone else they know. They see these professors engrossed in and adopting the same fads, fashions, trends, and being influenced by and deferring to the same cultural pressures as their circle of friends and acquaintances. They look at the lives of these professors and see that they are enslaved to the same sins they are, and that their lives and families are just as messed up and their children are just as undisciplined, unruly, and disobedient as any other. They see that these professors are as reluctant and unwilling to suffer for what they profess to believe, and as loath to patiently endure hardships, trials, deprivations, and slanders as those who make no profession, if not more so. They see them spook like a deer at every threat to their self-interests, ease, comfort, prosperity, reputation, and security, and that they do not live like people prepared to let it all go, suffer the loss of all things, and give it all up for the cause of Christ. They see them just as litigious and demanding of their “rights” as any other special interest group. Is it any wonder that the world scoffs and concludes that when push comes to shove professing Christians are not willing to trust in and live by what they profess to believe? If we believe that Christ promised ease, comfort, prosperity, entertainment, equality, self-gratification, and popularity then the world might conclude that we live what we believe. But how can they be persuaded to believe when they think that the bulk of churches and those who belong to them profess what they do not really believe, although they try and persuade the world and themselves that they do, all while living in a way that denies in practice what they profess to believe in principle (Tit 1:16).
Among many Christians there is a general disillusionment and frustration with both institutional and established, as well as with the new and novel forms of Christianity. Worldly, immoral, and unregenerate leaders, entertainment driven worship, the generational, ethnic, social, and economic segregation of the church, the dumbing down of doctrine, therapeutic instead of biblical messages, forced emotionalism, tedious repetition, political correctness – all this and more have left many believers confused and spiritually hungry, leading many to give up on church and just stay home and listen to someone on their computer. It may well be said that the fastest growing denomination today is composed of people who used to go to church. As a consequence many, if not most church leaders today have been intimidated and influenced by statistics, market studies, church-growth “experts”, and scholarly assertions into believing that “old-fashioned” evangelicalism has no future. Something new is required, or so we are told, if the church is to avoid becoming “irrelevant” and a relic of the past. But in all the experimenting, reinventing, restructuring, reorganizing, and innovation, very rarely do we ever hear of anyone recommending, considering, or much less actually looking to and following the Bible. It is time to once again get back to the New Testament pattern of simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, where His true people gather not to be entertained and flattered, but for the teaching of the word, edification, the Lord’s Supper, the equipping of the saints, encouraging one another in the faith, and then scatter to evangelize. It is time to return to a biblical foundation where the church is once again the pillar and support of the truth and the Bible is the only rule and standard by which we operate, and to actually live it and not just profess it in a doctrinal statement.
The world may be spiritually blind but not physically blind. The world has ears to hear what we say and eyes to see what we do and enough perception to know when they do not agree. As long as churches and professing Christians do and live no more than others, then talk, scheme, gimmick, and entertain all you want, the world will not be convinced that the Christian’s way is better than others. In fact, at the rate which the bulk of professing churches and Christians have assimilated, integrated, imitated, and deferred to the world, the world can only conclude that its ways must be better than those of Christianity. It was those who were too preoccupied with eating, drinking, giving in marriage, and their life in this world, while Noah was busy, by faith, preparing an ark for he and his family, that destruction came upon them suddenly and swept them away.
Reader, when a dangerous season is upon us, does the world see you preparing your ark, or your barns (Lk 12:15-21)? Does it see you denying self, taking up your cross, taking your dearest pleasures, comforts, and enjoyments and placing them all at Christ’s disposal, prepared to follow Him through the hardest paths of suffering? Was it not by his preparing an ark by faith that Noah was said to have condemned to world (Hb 11:7)? It was his trust, reverence, and conviction of the truth of God’s word and of His holy nature that motivated Noah to prepare an ark, and to prepare himself and his family for God’s impending judgment while everyone else was busy with their normal routine. It was this faith and conviction which motivated Noah to action and to prepare, and it was by his preparation that he condemned the world by leaving them no excuse. They could not point to Noah and say, “Despite all of his preaching, he is not doing anything to prepare. He is just as busy pursuing, getting, and clinging to the things of this world as we. He is just as worldly as we. He must not believe what he preaches, so why should we?” No, the world saw that Noah and his family believed what he professed and preached by his daily preparations. Reader, let the world see you preparing for suffering in these dangerous times so that even if they will not believe that there is a God who judges on earth (Ps 58:11), they will not be able to point to you as an excuse for their sloth, security, and negligence, but will be forced to admit that at least you really believed, even if no one else did.
Fifth Consideration
This preparation and foresight must be an excellent and blessed thing seeing as how the Bible speaks so highly in its favor and commends those who practice it. Such people are judged to be among the most wise and prudent, while all the rest, no matter how great they may have been in the eyes of men, are said to be fools, “The one among the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord made his servants and his livestock flee into the houses; but he who paid no regard to the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field” (Ex 9:20, 21); “The prudent sees the evil and hides himself, but the naïve go on, and are punished for it” (Prov 22:3; cf. 14:16; 27:12). They continue to live as if there is no danger. They live secure and unconcerned for any danger that they cannot immediately see, and scoff at those who by faith prepare themselves and warn others, until they are actually suffering, and then they whine about the consequences. Even then, like Ahab, rather than blame themselves, they will oftentimes blame their sufferings on the ones who tried to warn them, “And it came about, when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said to him, ‘Is this you, you troubler of Israel?’ And he said, ‘I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have because you have forsaken the commandment of the Lord,” (1 Kgs 18:17, 18).
Reader, there are signs of the times as well as of the weather, and both are just as plain and self-evident for those who have eyes to see (Lk 12:56). You may see the clouds of God’s judgment gathering before the storm bursts upon you. Where there is the beginning of birth bangs there will be the more severe pains of labor. Where there is the conception of judgment there will be the birth of judgment. It requires knowing, observing, and discerning the marks of a dangerous season to prepare the heart and mind for its sufferings, and to warn others. This can be done simply by observing what God has done in similar conditions in the past when a nation and people have been guilty of the same sins as they are now. God does not change. He is as holy, just, and righteous now as He was then. He hates sin as much now as He did then. He will judge now as He did then all those who reject, abuse, tempt, and corrupt His word, His gospel, and His grace, and who live in a false security, and who listen to the false teachers who cause people to trust in a lie (Jer 28:15). This can be done by observing the judgments and signs that are already upon a people and that are meant to serve as indications and forerunners of more severe judgments that are right at the door.
By observing and paying close attention to these things the Christian can be reasonably certain of the season in which they live, whether it be a dangerous one or not. They can take the necessary steps and use the means appointed by God to prevent the more severe sufferings which the season portends, “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth who have carried out His ordinances; seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger” (Zeph 2:3). And if they cannot be prevented, which is usually the case when a nation has gone beyond the point of no return and God has given them over to a depraved mind, then to take refuge, not in institutional religion or the false hopes of men, but in Christ, His love, His promises, and His attributes so they can be firmly anchored to the Solid Rock when the storm bursts upon their house (Mt 7:24, 25). Whenever the Bible commends and praises anyone for their anticipation and foresight of God’s judgment, it is always with respect to their making preparation for them. To be willingly ignorant of and scoff at all the marks and symptoms of a dangerous season, or to see them and be convinced that you are in a dangerous season and yet not act and prepare accordingly, is not only foolish, presumptuous, and lazy, but it will increase rather than diminish your misery and suffering.
Sixth Consideration
Another blessedness of this preparation for suffering is the influence it will have on your ability to stand firm and resist in the evil day. Given the obvious fact of how rapidly our nation, along with the mass of professing Christianity, has sunk and continues to sink into the mire of spiritual and moral degeneracy, can anyone be so naïve and ignorant of how much you are likely to be tried, tempted, seduced, pressured, and coerced into conforming to the religion and culture of our day? Can anyone be so self-confident in their own strength, so oblivious of their own weakness, and so ignorant and unmindful of the enemy’s cunning, craftiness, wiles, and schemes that have foiled and overthrown much stronger and better saints than you? This is why the believer is instructed to “be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might” (Eph 6:11). And we can only do this if we obey the command to “put on the full armor (not partial armor) of God (not part His and part our own), so that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Eph 6:11). It is a secure, complacent, unobservant, and negligent soldier that takes off their armor because they see no sign of the enemy, not realizing that in so doing they are now totally defenseless against his schemes. They fall for and are carried about by every wind of doctrine, every new theological fad, every new celebrity preacher, and by the trickery and craftiness of his servants who masquerade as servants of righteousness. They can make no distinction between the true and the false, the clean and the unclean, and the holy and the profane. In the end they succumb to the pressure to conform not only their life, but their religion to the values, thinking, and ways of the world.
The soldier who is prepared will be able to stand firm in the evil day verses the one who in a dangerous season is scrambling and looking for their long neglected and now unfamiliar armor. Even if they can find it, they have no idea how to use it either defensively or offensively. Like the seven sons of Sceva they will try to engage the enemy in their own power, and with worldly, carnal, and human weapons, only to find themselves outwitted, outmatched, and overpowered (Ac 19:14-16). There can be no expectation of standing firm in the evil day except you are clothed night and day and from head to foot with the full armor of God. The Christian who is prepared and ready in the full armor of God, they alone will be found strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might, standing firm in the evil day, while all the rest sleep on in dreamy security until the evil day overtakes them like a thief in the night.
Seventh Consideration
The seventh and last blessing of a heart and mind prepared for even the worst of sufferings is that it is evidence of a will that is in total submission to the will of God. So it was with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, “if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Mt 26:39). Until your heart and mind is prepared to be anything or nothing, to go anywhere or nowhere, and to walk in the example which Jesus has left for you to follow in His steps (1 Pt 2:21), then you cannot be prepared to suffer for Him. There is nothing from which our fleshly nature shrinks, and does all it can to prevent and avoid more than suffering. And even when the flesh willfully submits itself to some form of suffering, it is usually with an eye to some temporal, worldly, and self-serving benefit, so that the suffering is done for self and self-interest. Perhaps it is in the pursuit of some goal, like an athlete. Perhaps it is to gain a name for themselves and to be admired by others. Many will willfully suffer shame and degradation in the pursuit of some self-gratifying lust. Whatever the motive, the flesh will usually consent to some suffering if the person believes it is in their own self-interest. They will suffer for self. But this is by no means evidence of a will subdued and submitted to the will of God.
To have the will so resigned by God’s grace to the good and perfect will of God is a very excellent and blessed grace indeed. In fact, this is the primary purpose and effect of regeneration and a true work of the Holy Spirit in the heart and mind. The heart, mind, and will of every unregenerate person is by nature hostile to God and His law because they are set on the flesh (Rm 8:7), a slave to sin and unrighteousness, and therefore are opposed the things of the Spirit of God (Gal 5:17). But after conversion they become slaves of righteousness, “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Rm 6:17, 18).
But what is righteousness? Righteousness implies a standard or rule. What is the standard by which something is judged to be righteous or unrighteous? The perfect moral law of God is the only objective standard for righteousness. As far as any thought, word, and action are in conformity to this standard, then it is righteous. It is not the righteousness which justifies, “because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Rm 3:20). It is not a perfect righteousness. Only one person ever lived a perfectly righteous life, and that was the God-man Jesus Christ. Rather it is an imperfect righteousness that all who have been justified by faith in the righteousness of Christ will desire and strive to practice, because the law of God is now written on their heart. As a result their heart and mind is continuously being renewed and transformed so “that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rm 12:2). It is by this that the children of God and the children of the devil become obvious, “Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil;…By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious;” (1 Jn 3:7-10). It becomes obvious when their practice is measured against God’s standard of righteousness. A will submitted to the will of God is a will that is submitted to the law of God (Rm 8:7). God’s law and His will is hostile to and opposed to all that our fallen, fleshly, and carnal nature loves and values (Gal 5:17). A will that is submitted to the will of God is one that, “if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong” (1 Pt 3:17)
The strength and power of sin resides in its dominion over the will, and it is the will that rules the person. It commands all their actions. True conversion and regeneration destroys sin’s dominion, “For sin shall not be master over you, (Rm 6:14), because a new principle of spiritual life now dominates the will. Now, to have Christ, His word, and His Spirit rule that which commands both your inner and outer self is no small mercy. And no better evidence can be given that your will is now under the dominion of Jesus Christ then that you stand ready, and seriously prepare yourself to stand ready, to willingly suffer the severest trials and hardships for the cause of Christ. If your will can be ready for this it is a great evidence that your will has been subdued, conquered, and constrained by the grace and love of Christ (2 Cor 5:14).
So then, upon all these considerations, and many more could be mentioned, you cannot but admit that it is a very blessed and necessary thing to have a heart, mind, and will so prepared for the greatest of sufferings that can come from being devoted to Christ, especially in a dangerous season. I pray your heart is prepared, or you are seriously striving to prepare your heart and mind for sufferings, and to “fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pt 1:13). A dangerous season is not a season in which to be negligent, complacent, secure, and to go about your life as usual. You do so at the risk of your peace, stability, and possibly your precious and immortal soul.
In our next study we will consider in what this preparation and readiness for suffering consists.
[1] Robert Bernard Dann, Father of Faith Missions: The Life and Times of Anthony Norris Groves (Waynesboro, GA: Authentic Media, 2004), 414.
[2] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Cross (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1986), 44, 45.